thirty
by haveyounomercy
Summary: Sometimes all that separates friends from lovers are a couple of kisses. Thirty Sengoku/OC drabbles, based on the 30 kisses LJ challenge.
1. Chapter 1

**a/n:** I'm super excited to start this drabblefic, it's based on the 30_kisses challenge and I'm going to try to evolve a friendship into a relationship through these 30 prompts. enjoy!

goukon: a group date

o~

_prompt 1: look over here_

"Not having fun?"

Tsumaki Shizuka turns around abruptly, one hand still on the bathroom door handle. Sengoku grins at her, and she rolls her eyes. "No, I'm having _so_ much fun sitting with a bunch of strangers in a karaoke booth."

"That's the point of a goukon, you know." Sengoku points out, leaning one shoulder against the wall. "You're supposed to be socializing, not running to the bathroom every thirty minutes."

Shizuka lets go of the handle, sighing as she leans against the wall too. "I'm sorry, it's just so… I don't know. You wouldn't understand, Mr. Popular."

He laughs, patting her on the head. "You'd be just as popular if you weren't always on your phone, Shizu-chan."

Her hand grips her phone tighter and she fakes a laugh, "Yeah, guess I shouldn't be waiting for a text that won't come, huh? Thanks for telling me." She hates how easily she gets riled up over this subject, hates how she's stuck at this stupid goukon, hates how she's being a complete _bitch_ to everyone.

"I arranged this goukon for you to find someone new." Sengoku says quietly, eyes worrying. She knows he cares, knows that they've been friends for two years and all he wants to do is help, but all she can feel is petty anger.

"Yeah, well, maybe I don't want to find someone new." She snaps, running a hand through her hair frustratedly. "Look, I know you're trying your best or whatever, but I'm not like you. I can't just date people back to back and not care at all." The second she says it, she flinches. She sounds so bitter, so _ugly_. "I'm going to the bathroom now," she mutters and quickly turns around and slips through the door.

As she washes her hands for the fourth time that night, she glares at her own reflection. All her friends, not just Sengoku, had tried to help her get over her last break up. She doesn't know why it's taking so long, it's been a month already and he was just a _stupid boy_, but she can't seem to forget him.

When she leaves the washroom, she's surprised that he's still waiting there. She looks at the ground, embarrassed over her outburst. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean what I said."

"Hey, Shizu-chan," Sengoku's voice comes from somewhere above her head. She doesn't look up. "It's okay." He rests a hand on her head, and she doesn't know why but she starts to cry.

"It's his birthday today," she says through her sniffling, bringing her hands to cup her face and hide her tears.

"I know."

She stands there, crying into her hands with his hand on her head, and she tells him how there's a present hidden in the back of her closet, a present she had bought for him a month ago, two days before they had broken up. She tells him how she can't throw it out, can't even _look_ at it, and everything just hurts and she doesn't know why, but he was just _special_.

Shizuka says all of this as he takes his hand away and rests it on her arm. She continues to talk about all the little things he did for her as he leads her out of the hallway and out the karaoke house doors and onto the empty sidewalk. She doesn't look up because she is _ugly_ and _undesirable_ and that's why he left her and that's why she's taking it out on Sengoku, her best friend, and she keeps crying and explaining and she feels… she feels so lost.

He waits until she pauses, and he tugs on her arm gently. "Hey, Shizu-chan, look up." She shakes her head, but he keeps tugging until she finally brings her hands down, mascara streaked down the sides of her cheeks, looking up at the night sky.

"It's cold out here, isn't it?" Is all he says.

She laughs bitterly, because it's all she can do at this point.

"It'll get warmer in the morning though," he says, and she looks up at him. He kisses her on the forehead reassuringly, and puts his arm around her shoulder.

And for some crazy reason, she believes him with all her heart.


	2. Chapter 2

**a/n:** because after years of not writing, I will inevitably upload five things in a week.

o~

_prompt 2: news; letter_

"Shizu-chan, were you here the whole practice?"

Shizuka laughs, shaking her head. "No, I was doing art club stuff. I have something to give you, though." As she rummages through her bag, Sengoku closes his locker. He stretches, yawning.

"I hope it's food," he grins as he goes around the clubroom and turns off the lights. He's always the last one out, because most of the other members rush off right after practice ends while Sengoku always makes sure to take a quick shower and preen in front of the mirror. He had a reputation to keep up, of course.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but it's a love letter." Shizuka hands the pink envelope to him, raising an eyebrow as he whistles. "It's from Kisa in class A."

He inspects it before tossing it into his schoolbag, winking at her. "She's a cutie, isn't she? Ah, I'm so lucky!" He frowns, leading them out of the clubroom. "But you don't really have to always deliver these to me, you know. It's weird to have a girl give me someone else's love letter."

Shizuka shrugs as he locks the door. "It's not like I can refuse to after doing it for so long. Two years of being your mail carrier is tiring, though." She elbows him lightly in the ribs, "I think you owe me some cake for always being so nice to you."

"I would if I had money!" Says Sengoku with a glint in his eyes. "But I can't, since I have to save up for my date with Kisa-chan now."

"You haven't even read the letter yet," she points out while rolling her eyes. "You know, being that arrogant is going to come back and bite you in the ass one day."

"Well if that ever happens, then Shizu-chan will just have to come fix it for me." Sengoku blows a kiss at her, laughing loudly when she grimaces. "You know, you're the only girl who refuses my kisses."

She wrinkles her nose in disdain. "I'd think you'd have enough girls grovelling around you already. Besides, you're always tossing kisses around left and right, they don't have any meanings to them anymore."

He flicks her forehead. "The word 'grovelling' makes them sound like animals or something. All the girls who like me are super cute, you know! And besides, I like kissing people, it's fun." He blows another kiss at her and she laughs.

"Whatever you say, you player." As they reach the school gates, she raises a hand to wave goodbye. "Well, I gotta go to cram school. See you tomorrow?"

"You don't have cram school today." Sengoku frowns.

She blinks, surprised. "How do you know that?"

It's his turn to roll his eyes. "Give me a little credit, Shizu-chan! How long have we been friends?" Not waiting for her answer, he winks. "So where are you really going? Got a hot date?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Shizuka mutters, avoiding his teasing stare. She doesn't have to look to know that his expression has changed into a more suspicious one. "Okay okay, I was going to go to Macdonald's." She puts a finger to her lips, mustering up a smile, "Don't tell anyone, since I'm supposed to be on a diet." She doesn't say that she actually heard that Hiro, her ex-boyfriend, had gotten a job at the arcade. She doesn't say that she had been planning on stopping by, just to get a glance, just a tiny peek at him. For old time's sake. She doesn't know why she's lying to him.

"Then let's go together!" Sengoku smiles back at her, but she can tell that he can sense that something's off.

Shifting her weight nervously, Shizuka bites her lip. "I thought you wanted to save up."

"Do you want to go to Macdonald's or tell me where you were really planning on going?"

Looking into his serious eyes, Shizuka sighs. She smiles just a little, because maybe this is the better decision in the end. She shouldn't go see Hiro, she should be over him by now. Key word being _should_. "You're treating, then."

Sengoku whines, "What? And I thought I was on a lucky streak." His facial expression relaxes as he starts to walk ahead of her. "Also, you don't need to diet, Shizu-chan."

She stares at his back, silent. It's a complicated feeling to know that he always tries to protect her, for reasons unbeknownst to her. She doesn't know why they're such good friends, why he can tell exactly what she's thinking or planning, but all she can feel is lucky that she has him. And as she watches him walk farther off, there's a sort of warm feeling in her chest. It bubbles over and she laughs, calling out his name. When he turns around, she blows him a kiss.

And later that night, she walks past the arcade without stopping at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**a/n:** the confidence I have in this story is steadily fading.

o~

_prompt 3: jolt!_

If she is completely honest, then yes, when she and Sengoku first met in their first year of middle school, she might have had a little crush on him. She couldn't help herself, he had been so charming and smiley and just so _nice_.

Shizuka remembers approaching him nervously and being over the moon when they first struck up a conversation. Funnily enough, they had had so much in common that it became natural for them to talk during breaks. Their conversations never actually held anything of importance, ranging from how they preferred yakisoba bread more than its curry counterpart to the television shows they were both obsessed with. (While she knew the whole time that he never thought of her as anything but a friend, she couldn't help but feel secretly happy that she was able to spend so much time with him.) Of course, as time went on and she kept her feelings hidden, he started to talk to her about girls who liked him... and girls _he_ liked.

She watched wordlessly as he started dating the other girls in their grade, faking her support because she had been so scared that if she said anything, all their closeness would be lost.

Nothing happened between them as the year went on. She went out with her friends and joined the art club and he juggled girls as he quickly turned the tennis club upside down with his cheery demeanor. Despite them being so busy, they somehow always had time to go out once in a while and just chat.

He was the only one she could honestly talk to about how she felt towards certain people, since he was actually a bigger gossip than most people knew. And he told her everything that he couldn't talk about with his guy friends, from his tennis tactics to what he did with hot upperclassmen at parties. Sometimes he told her too much, but slowly she started realizing that she didn't mind when he talked about other girls. It became normal for her to listen to him ranting about break-ups and make-ups.

Shizuka wondered if she still liked Sengoku, or whether she was satisfied with just being the good friends that they were. She let the matter drop since she always got a headache when she thought about it, and of course Sengoku went through it all obliviously. By the end of their first year, she was convinced that she had just grown out of her silly little crush on him.

That was, until they played a game of Seven Minutes of Heaven.

It had been at a small house party that one of his friends hosted, with only a group of around fifteen students. Shizuka hadn't been paying much attention since she was slightly tipsy, so when she found herself getting pushed into a closet by her friends she was thoroughly confused as the door closed and she stood there, frowning.

Then she had turned around to be right under Sengoku's nose. He laughed, and she remembers that he had smelled like deodorant and beer. They had stood there talking quietly for the first few minutes before the conversation trailed off awkwardly, him staring up at the ceiling and her boring holes into the ground. She finally realized then with a jolt that her heart was pounding in her chest, and she became confused all over again because it was just _Sengoku_, and she hadn't felt anything towards him for months. He wasn't anything special anymore.

Before she knew it, she had looked up and saw him looking down at her intently, and she couldn't think straight enough to tell herself that what she was doing bad before he leaned down and she stood on her tip toes to bring their lips together.

Their noses bumped rather painfully a second after their lips touched, and the awkwardness of it all had made them giggle. The giggling turned into snorting, and suddenly they were leaning against each other for support as they laughed harder than they ever had before. They seemed to have a mutual agreement that what had happened was too weird to be romantic.

Her heart didn't thump again for him after that, and they went back to gossiping about other students over cheap coffee and donuts.

It had been Shizuka's first kiss.


End file.
